{"id":13318,"date":"2023-11-24T06:30:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T06:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=13318"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:04:19","slug":"how-to-meet-the-needs-of-chinese-tourists-this-chinese-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/how-to-meet-the-needs-of-chinese-tourists-this-chinese-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"How to meet the needs of Chinese tourists this Spring Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outbound tourism from China is slowly recovering post-Covid, but the tourists that are coming back are not necessarily spending and behaving the way that they used to. With the Lunar New Year (known in China as Spring Festival) peak travel period approaching, how should UK companies prepare for the return of the Chinese tourist?<\/h2>\n

Pre-Covid, China\u2019s international tourism spend, at \u00a3225 billion, was the most of any country in the world \u2013 almost double that of the USA, whose citizens collectively spent \u00a3117 billion in 2019. Much of that spending went to China\u2019s Asian neighbours, with Thailand, Japan and Vietnam making up the top three foreign travel destinations for Chinese travellers.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, over the past decade, the UK has also been high on the agenda for China\u2019s growing middle classes, with 1.01 million visiting in 2019, attracted by the UK\u2019s history and culture, as well as its shopping and leisure facilities.<\/p>\n

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Things, of course, came to an abrupt halt during the pandemic as global travel was put on hold. In 2021, less than 20,000 Chinese visitors came to the UK, as restrictions from both sides were put in place and flight routes were cancelled. This figure crept up to just 46,986 in 2022, according to Visit Britain.<\/p>\n

However, since China re-opened earlier this year, flights between the UK and China have recovered to 70% of pre-pandemic levels, with airlines like Hainan Airlines offering direct flights between major Chinese cities and major UK hubs like London and Manchester.\u00a0 The recovery may be happening slower than people had hoped, but the fact is that Chinese tourists are<\/em> now coming back to the UK \u2013 especially since Beijing started to allow group travel again \u2013 with research by the New West End Company (NWEC) revealing that visitor numbers in September 2023 were only 2% lower than in September 2019.<\/p>\n

However, it seems that the tourists that are coming back are spending much less than they used to. The same research by NWEC found that Chinese tourists in the West End were spending 58% less than they were before the pandemic.<\/p>\n